Sunday, June 12, 2011

It was my buddy Riley's birthday. He was turning 24, and I was trying to think of a place to take him for his big day. After reading OC Weekly's review of the Tilted Kilt, it seemed like this place was almost made for him. So we headed just across the county line to Long Beach to give it a try.

The Tilted Kilt launched in 2003 and today they have 30 restaurants in 20 states. They expect to have 80 units opened by the end of this year. The reason for the rapid expansion? It probably has to do with a term that I learned while writing this post, breastaurants. The Tilted Kilt has their waitresses dress in short, plaid skirts and matching bras, with knee high socks and white shirts tied to show their midriffs. Easily one of the best waitress uniforms to come along in a long while. Of course a restaurant is not judged by a waitress's attire alone, so let's check out the food.

It took us an hour in rush hour traffic to get to Long Beach, so we were pretty hungry when we got to the Kilt. So we started with two appetizers, the Mozzarella Sticks and Potato Skins. The fried cheese was good and crispy, without being real greasy. The potato skins were crisp as well, but they did lack an abundance of cheese. Both of these appetizers came out real quick. Like less than three minutes after we ordered them. I was worried that they had been sitting around, but they did come out hot.

The birthday boy Riley ordered the Maggie Mae's Fish and Chips. These two pieces of cod came with tarter sauce and Cole slaw. Riley, always the clever one remarked, "these fish and chips are a 10, to match the waitresses." I think that he is hoping that one of the waitresses will read this and want to get in touch with him. Anyways, I did try these and they were pretty good. Again, they were not greasy, and the fish did seem pretty fresh.

Yes, of course Katie came with us here, and she went with the Chicken Tender Wrap. With this she got to choose her sauce, and she went with TK signature sauce, which was spicy and sweet. She liked the chicken in this because it was not heavily breaded and it was tender. The only fault she found with this wrap was that the tortilla did not stand up to the contents inside. It fell apart halfway through her eating this. She also upgraded to sweet potato fries for an extra charge. She felt these were just average, and would try a different side next time.

This being a bar and everything, I of course had to get a burger, so I had the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger with the BBQ sauce on the side. This burger was cooked fine, and very tasty. The bun was fresh, the meat was juicy and the bacon cooked crisp. The fries were okay as well. I liked this, but would like to try other items on their menu next time. The meatloaf sandwich and Sheppard's pie piqued my interest the most.

Since it was Riley's big day we got a free dessert, which was the Tilted Guilt. A chocolate chip cookie topped with ice cream and chocolate syrup. This was served warm, and is the Tilted Kilt's answer to the Pizookie from BJ's. The only complaint I have with this was that there was not enough ice cream on this. More would have made this much better.

Comparisons to Hooters are of course going to be made in the battle for the best breastaurant. In my opinion there is no contest. Starting with the atmosphere, the waitresses, and trickling down to the food, the Tilted Kilt beats them in all facets. The waitress's were friendly without being over the top flirty or trashy. The menu here is more substantial and has higher quality foods than Hooters. At Hooters the girls are the main focus, while at TK, the girls are great to look at, but they also have better food and a better atmosphere behind them. This makes the Tilted Kilt more of the full package.

Out of five golf balls, (because this place has a Scottish theme, and Scotland is the home of golf), five being best to zero being worst, the Tilted Kilt gets three golf balls.